


there will be other summers

by thecaffeinatedwriter



Series: Summer Boys [2]
Category: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29515488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecaffeinatedwriter/pseuds/thecaffeinatedwriter
Summary: Ari and Dante have finished their senior year of highschool and now they need to go make the world their own. Glimpses of the boys' lives through multiple summers in their futures.Diving into the waters of the world will be the sequel's title, I am so excited and just knew that I had to do something with the other title that we were given and is no longer going to be used. So here's my take on what There will be other Summers means to me with these characters.I hope you enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Relationships: Aristotle Mendoza & Dante Quintana, Aristotle Mendoza/Dante Quintana
Series: Summer Boys [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168223
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	there will be other summers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a continuation to my other fic Summer boys, which you can read if you like. Enjoy!

No one ever tells you how easy it is to fall in love. How quickly your breath can sync with someone else’s. The way that a smile can hold a whole conversation inside it. The usual and steady sureness of the inbetweens. Ari had heard a lot about heartbreak, everyone warned him, but no one had told him about the dangers of falling in love. “The thing is, Ari,” Gina had told him one of those unpredictably cold February afternoons, “high school relationships never work. It’s better to not date anyone too good until university. Otherwise, it’s just a death sentence.” Sure, she had said that just after breaking up with her boyfriend of the week, or well, Ari wasn’t even sure he could be properly called _her boyfriend,_ but he wasn’t about to go debate her on that, Ari valued his life. So perhaps Gina wasn’t in her best or most optimistic judgement. And he knew, he knew how much of a naive belief it was to think that his first love was the one he was meant to be with for the rest of his life, still he couldn’t help but hold on to it. _At least,_ Ari thought, _I know there will be other summers. Other summers with Dante._

At least that was what he believed until the letters arrived. It was almost hard to keep track of how many there were, one college after another, all professing their undying love for Dante. Or so it felt like.  _ We are pleased to offer you a place at…. So and so university welcomes you… We hope to see you for our winter term…  _ It turned out that all those hours spent by the swimming pool and Dante’s love for learning was exactly what every college was looking for. They all wanted Dante. There was one particular letter that stung the most for Ari, he knew that Dante had been anxiously waiting for it. Those quick glances to the mailbox when he thought Ari wasn’t looking and the way he picked up the pace when they were walking to his house didn’t go unnoticed by Ari. Of course he was happy for Dante, he really was, even if sometimes he found himself wishing that he could be the only one to want him. But Ari would never be one to hold Dante back, besides, he was fairly certain that no one truly could, so when Dante showed him the letter, he smiled. He smiled at the expensive-looking paper with the unmistakable stamp of the University of California–Berkeley. 

“California, wow.” Ari couldn’t let Dante see how much he wanted to cry.

“I know.” Dante  _ was  _ crying, but Dante tears and Ari tears were two completely different things.

“Wow.”

“California is less than twenty hours away from El Paso. I looked it up.”

“Dante, I–”

“Don’t. Don’t, Ari. Okay? Just please don’t,” Dante begged him.

“So, twenty hours, huh? That’s not so far away,” Ari said. 

Some lies were necessary, even if everyone already knew the truth.  _ Some lies, _ Ari thought,  _ keep you going. They allow you to survive. _

March came to an end, and so did April, and so did May. June was there with a promise that only summers can carry, a promise of hope and life but also one of new beginnings. Dante had taken an absurd amount of time to accept Berkeley’s offer, it wasn’t like there was ever a question of whether or not he would go, of course he would. Sometimes Ari thought that Dante believed that if he didn’t accept it right away, he would somehow get more time with him. It could be that or perhaps Dante’s amazing knack for procrastination, as Soledad called it. Either way, Dante took his place in UC Berkeley’s Art Program on the last day of acceptance of offer of admission. And Ari? Well, he had actually listened to his guidance counselor and decided to apply to a  _ reach school _ as he had called it. At first Ari didn’t see any point in applying to a university he didn’t think he could get in, but ended up succumbing to the pressure of his senior year. If he was being completely honest he did it more so that Mr. Pérez would stop bothering him to just do it.  _ I think you have a lot more potential than you give yourself credit for, Aristotle.  _ He had said. Perhaps it was the guidance counselor the one Ari needed to give more credit to, because Ari had gotten into the University of Texas at Austin.  _ The most selective program for English in the State,  _ Mr. Quintana had said. Ari had gotten better at accepting compliments from the Quintanas, but he still blushed to this. The thing was, he had spent nights and nights and nights reading his acceptance letter over and over again, he had gone to the library to look at the pamphlets form previous years and he could almost feel himself falling in love with a life at UT Austin, he could almost feel himself falling in love with a life without Dante. And that, that was scary as hell.

“Ari?” Dante asked. It was a sunny day in early June and the boys had already settled into an easy routine, they drove up to the desert almost everyday, came back and spent at least an hour at the pool, went to one of their houses and finally, if the weather allowed it, went back to the desert to look at the stars. This day was different, in an unspoken agreement they had stayed longer at the desert, not really talking but just enjoying each other’s company, as the sun washed over them.

“Yeah?”

“We need to have a talk.”

“Do we need one every time you go away?”

“Ari,” Dante softly curled Ari’s hair around his finger, “we are  _ both  _ going away.”

“I’m only going to Austin.”

“And I’m only going to California.”

“I will miss you Dante Quintana.”

“Ari.”

“Dante.”

“Ari, don’t make me do this.” Tears were running down Dante’s eyes and Ari couldn’t help but feel so far away, with each breath he could feel himself going somewhere else, nowhere in particular, just not there. Not where Dante was… breaking up with him? Another universe, somewhere else.

“No one’s making you do anything.”

“Ari, I want you to be happy. I want us  _ both  _ to be happy. I don’t want to be the reason you are not fully in Austin.”

Ari took a long pause before answering, “it’s the summer, different rules.”

“What do you mean?” Dante asked while drying his tears with the back of his hand.

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t think I do.”

“Dante, don’t make me do this.”

“Wiseass.” Dante’s lips curled upward ever so slightly.

“Fine,” Ari could feel himself relaxing, Dante’s smiles had that effect on him, “what I mean is that we don’t have to do this right now. The summer still belongs to us, let’s just live in it. If you want to, we can set a date to do this.”

“You’re not seriously proposing we give ourselves a death sentence with a date and all. Did you know that not even death row inmates get a date?”

“Hey, you are the one that wanted to end it right now.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Then what are we doing right now?”

“I don’t know. You are so much harder to break up with than Daniel.”

“Wait wasn’t that piece of shit the one that broke up with you?”

“No, it was mutual. Kinda mutual at least. And he isn’t a piece of shit”

“So,” Ari asked, ignoring the fact that Daniel was most definitely a piece of shit, “what do we do?”

“We live by different rules. You’re right, we still have the summer. Let’s just not put an end date to it, that feels too cruel.”

“Okay,” Ari said, leaning toward Dante.

In between kisses Dante answered, “okay.” Ari wasn’t sure who he was really saying it to.

Kissing Dante was something that drew you in and couldn’t be resisted, at least that was what Ari thought. This time though, it was more than that, they were kissing with urgency and it seemed to him that there weren’t any spaces to breath in for air, they were kissing like they would find  _ the answer _ in each other, but there wasn’t  _ an answer.  _ Just two boys kissing in the desert. 

It was a summer of urgency, every hour, every minute, every second, they all felt gone before they could truly take them in.  _ Ephemeral _ , that was a word Ari had learned after reading a poem in a book Dante had given him. But this summer the word lived inside him, he felt it with every kiss, every lap the swum, everything. The light was barely entering the kitchen, lighting up everything in it, even Ari’s mom who looked so beautiful, Ari couldn’t understand how so much beauty could live inside her. She gave Ari a cup of coffee as she sipped her own, it was a light yellow mug that one of her students had given her.

“Are you going to go out with Dante today, Ari?” Lily asked, she already knew the answer, at least if previous evidence was proof of anything. 

“Yeah.”

“Ari,” she ran her fingers through his hair, “did I ever tell you about  _ my  _ first love?”

“No, but I think you know that, mom.”

“ _ Mi amor,  _ I know you are hurting. I wish I could just take all that away from you, but I can’t and I don’t think I should. Just trust me, one day, I promise, you’ll look back to this with different eyes.”

“How, mom? I can’t, I just, I don’t know. I thought seeing him in the hospital, beaten up, was the scariest thing ever and now–”

“It’s okay, I know.”

Ari sunk into his mother’s arms, he felt so little in them, he felt like a boy. Crying, crying and crying. He loved his mother, he loved the way she didn’t resent his tears, she accepted them, cherished them even.

“His name was Marcos,” she said, “Ari, I love your father, you know that. But I have never forgotten about him, he went off to be an artist and I stayed here. When he left, I felt like I would never recover, not ever. But I did, and I met your father. Your father was beautiful, he still is.”

“An artist?”

“Yeah,” she smiled, “we are more alike than you think.” Ari blushed.

“Mom,” Ari took a sip of his coffee that had already gotten cold, “are you saying that I’ll meet someone else?”

She took a deep breath. “Perhaps, or perhaps Dante is the one for you. In matters of the heart only time can tell.”

“But we don’t have time.”

“Oh,  _ m’hijo,  _ you have all the time in the world. You truly do.”

“You know I won’t believe that, right?” Ari said.

“I know.”

“I’m gonna take legs out for a walk.”

“Say hi to Dante for me.”

Mr. Quintana opened the door. “Oh! Hi, Ari. Dante’s still asleep, but he probably wouldn’t mind you going to wake him up.”

Suddenly, Ari realized how little he had thought this through. “It’s okay, I can come back later.”

“No, seriously, you’d be doing Soledad and I a favor.” 

Ari went in, the Quintana’s house looked mostly the same, except now there were baby toys scattered on the floor. Little Cassie was almost six months old and was every bit as curious as Dante. Mrs. Quintana was sitting in the living room with her baby, Cassie was sleeping while smiling sweetly. 

“Hi, Ari! Hi, Legs!”

Legs dutifully sat on Mrs. Quintanas feet, she was a lovely dog. 

“Hi,” he gave her a kiss on the cheek, “Cassie looks so calm.”

“Oh well,” Mr. Quintana interjected, “only because she kept us up all night.”

“But we don’t want to bore you, Ari. Dante’s upstairs, he’ll be happy to see you.”

Ari knocked on Dante’s door only to be met with silence. So he knocked a little louder, “It’s me, Ari.”

“Come in.” Dante’s voice sounded like it was muffled by a pillow.

“I can wait.”

“No, come in.”

Ari was just about to go in when Dante opened the door. He was wearing only boxers and was wrapped in a blanket. His hair was flat on one side and his face still had lines from sleeping. Even so, Ari thought he was the most beautiful person in the world.

Dante promptly went back into his bed, “give me a minute. Come in with me.”

“Your parents are downstairs.”

“So what? It’s not like we are going to do anything. Unless–”

“Fine, but just for a little while. And we are  _ not  _ doing anything.”

“Perfect.”

Ari was pretty sure that he’d die if anyone found out that Dante insisted on him being little spoon.  _ I’m taller,  _ Dante had said, which was true and at the end of the day Ari found it extremely hard to resist Dante in any way.

“So,” Ari said.

“Mmmm.” Dante was falling asleep again.

“I was thinking, do you wanna go to Tucson?”

“What?”

“As a road trip, we could go, stay at my aunt’s house and then come back.”

“When?”

“I don’t know, I was thinking today but we could go tomorrow or in a week. I dunno.”

“Let’s go today,” Dante said.

“Are you sure? Do you think your parents will be okay with it?”

“Of course.”

“Okay then.”

“We are going to Tucson.” Dante was smiling.

“We are.” Ari could feel himself sinking in Dante’s bed. Everything smelled like him and he wondered if he would ever forget this. For a moment, time stopped, at least for them.

Of course, Ari thought it was perfectly reasonable to leave for Tucson in an hour, but Dante and their mom’s differed. There were lunches to pack and clothes to choose from and  _ Ari, how do you expect me to just know what I’ll want to wear tomorrow, I’ve got to pack options.  _ He was fairly certain that Dante had worn nothing but denim shorts and ratty t-shirts all summer, but Dante didn’t appreciate being told that. Finally, at 12:37 pm, June 29th, the two boys were on their way to Tucson, Arizona. Dante brought a cassette,  _ Abbey Road.  _

“I thought you didn’t like cassettes,” Ari said. 

“I don’t, but I couldn’t exactly bring a record player.  _ Someone _ already thought that I was overpacking.”

“You don’t need five identical t-shirts to choose from tomorrow.”

“You are right, maybe I’ll just go shirtless.”

And they both laughed, there were almost no unspokens on their ride to Tucson. Somehow the old summer dynamic was fading away and it felt the farther away they were from home the more they could allow themselves to be like their old selves. Like it had been last summer. 

“So,” Dante said in between bites of a sandwich Ari’s mom had packed for them, “it’s June.”

“I always knew you were observant.”

“And yet you won’t let me drive your truck.”

“I do let you, sometimes.”

“Not true,” Ari could feel Dante’s eyes studying him, “Ari?”

“Yeah.”

“You do know what that means, right? June.”

“Dante, I’m not dumb.”

“I wasn’t saying you were.”

“June’s June.” Ari kept his eyes straight on the road.

“June’s Pride.”

“You wanna go.” Ari wasn’t asking a question, not really.

“It’s just so special, you know?”

“Have you ever been?”

“To a parade? No, not really.” There was something sad about his voice when he said it. “But I saw one, in D.C., it was actually my dad who took me.”

“Your dad took you?”

“Not exactly, but we went to a coffee shop that was right on the main avenue. We got to see everyone go by, I think that even then he knew and it was his way of showing his support. Not that I realized then, I just was really scared.”

“I’m scared  _ now _ ,” Ari said.

“Ari, nothing’s gonna happen.”

“You don’t know that.”

Dante was quiet for a long moment, “we don’t have to go. There are plenty of things to enjoy in Arizona. We’ll figure something out.”

Dante squeezed Ari’s hand, and the world felt safe again.

It was almost five in the afternoon by the time they arrived. “Are you hungry?” Ari asked.

“Starving.”

“Tacos?”

“Tacos.”

Luckily, there was a small food truck near where Ophelia had lived. Ari still couldn’t wrap his head around calling it his house, but it was,  _ his house.  _ Neither of them knew if it was because of having spent the last four hours driving or if the food was just that good, but they devoured everything on their plates. They were also served some lemonade that tasted like heaven, at least that was what Dante told the woman serving them. At first, Ari thought she had been distraught by that but then she started laughing,  _ esos niños.  _

“I guess we should head home,” Ari said.

“C’mon, the night’s still young. Let’s just go for a walk.”

“It’s not night yet.”

“My point exactly.”

“Fine, where do you wanna go?”

“There’s a park right down the street, maybe we could see who can kick his shoes the farthest.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“We are practically adults.”

“So? Are adults not allowed to have fun?”

“Dante.”

“Ari.”

They did not throw their shoes, deep inside they both knew that it was somehow past them, that those days were over. It felt like that first time they saw each other after Dante’s stay in Chicago. 

“Let’s go in here,” Dante said. It was a small library right in front of the park, Ari was about to let go of his hand when he noticed a tiny rainbow flag hanging on the window. He had a hunch Dante had noticed it too because his smile became even brighter.

The place was small and crowded with books and trinkets. Every inch of wall covered with either bookshelves or posters, if the flag had been a clue they were definitely not underwhelmed. Ari’s gaze lingered on a stack of books  _ Queer Theory: an approach to film, Tales of the City, The Color Purple.  _ He didn’t recognize any of the titles, there certainly weren’t any like this on El Paso’s Public Library. A thin man came out of the back, he was carrying a big stack of books and looked so frail Ari considered for a second offering to take and arrange the books himself. 

“Well, hello. My name’s Carlos, here to serve you.” He had a kind smile. “Looking for anything in particular?”

“Just perusing,” Dante said. Ari hadn’t noticed how Dante already had three books in his arms. 

“Fantastic, is this your first time here?”

“Yes,” Dante gave Ari a funny look, as if to say:  _ talk!  _ “We are from El Paso.”

“Interesting, what brings you to Tucson?”

This was definitely Ari’s cue to talk, but he had forgotten every word in the English language in that precise second.

“Visiting,” Dante continued, “and the great libraries of course.”

That made the man happy, he almost seemed a little bit younger.

“My aunt lived in the neighborhood.” Ari wasn’t sure what had compelled him to say that, but now he had and there was no turning back.

“Your aunt,” the man studied Ari’s face, “Aristotle?”

Dante’s eyes widened. “That’s him.”

“My god, Aristotle. Ophelia was a dear friend of mine, Franny too. But your aunt took care of me when no one else dared. I can’t believe I outlived her, my condolences.”

“Thank you.” It somehow felt fake when Ari said it, every time, it felt as though he didn’t deserve people’s condolences, how could he? He never wrote to her aunt.

“I can’t believe it’s you, Ophelia loved you, with all her heart. She was good at that, letting herself love. Stay for coffee, will you? I have stories about your aunt, if you want of course. Aristotle, she really did love you.”

“Of course,” Ari said, “I’d love to.”

The light of the early morning came through the peach-colored curtains. Dante looked beautiful, his hand was softly resting on his chest. Up and down, inhale and exhale. There was a certain beauty in stillness that only happened in early mornings, before the world was awake, when the world was theirs to keep, to treasure. 

Ari thought Dante was looking specially dreamy, too bad he was about to wake him up. “Dante.”

He was met with what could only be classified as a mix between a grunt and yawn.

“Are you awake?”

“Ari,” Dante turned towards him, “I am now.”

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Maybe today we could–”

“Are we not going to talk?” Dante asked.

“Talk about what?”

“I dunno, yesterday, your aunt. Last night?”

“We spent the whole afternoon talking about my aunt.”

“Fine, last night.”

“What about it?”

Dante sighed, “we had never had–”

“I know,” Ari interrupted him.

“Sex.” Dante smiled at him.

“ _ I know,  _ Dante _.” _

“Well, don’t you wanna talk about it?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“C’mon, it was beautiful.”

“Dante, you can’t say that.”

“Why not? It was.”

“It’s weird when you say it.”

“Good thing I have never aspired for normal.”

Ari knew there were some battles he could not win, especially if they were with Dante. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“If you wanna talk, we’ll talk. Not that I even know  _ what  _ you wanna talk about.”

“You cried,” Dante said. But it didn’t sound like a judgement, he was just stating it.

“Dante, I–”

“I just wanted to say that it’s okay. Okay?”

“It just built up inside me, y’know?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I can’t believe I had sex with Aristotle Mendoza.”

That cracked them both up. They laughed and laughed and laughed. Some things were hard, and some things were only easy with Dante. Feeling seen, utterly and completely seen was one of them. 

It was actually Ari’s idea for them to go to a parade. Dante had looked at him funny. 

“What? I thought you wanted to go.”

“I do, it’s just that you didn’t seem so eager back in Texas.”

“Well we’re not in Texas anymore.”

“We’re not.”

“Do you think my aunt ever went?”

“I bet she did. Carlos made her seem so brave.”

“I’ll never be as brave as she was,” Ari said.

They crossed the street to discover a festival of colors, there were no cars just groups and groups of people gathered. Everyone was smiling and the slight hesitancy of Ari’s mind left at that precise moment. 

“You are the bravest person I know, Ari.” Dante took his hand, barely grasping it, but that was definitely more than any of them would have dared back at home.

“No, Dante, you are.”

Walking down the streets enveloped by the crowd Ari felt, for the first time in his life, like he was part of something bigger than himself. He didn’t expect to ever feel so  _ at home _ in between a bunch of strangers, they weren’t strangers though, they were family. A type of family that couldn’t be broken, it was chosen and that bond would never stop being there. Not ever. It was the little things that Ari noticed and would later remember. The tears on a group of men whose signs said  _ we are dying.  _ The small pins that were being distributed and seemed to make their way through the crowd. The multiple hands holding, discovering the secrets of the universe. His own heartbeat, telling him that everything would be okay. And Dante’s bright smile, beautiful and unashamed. Everything came back to Dante, always Dante. It couldn’t be summer without him, Ari was sure of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I tried to incorporate more of my writing style into this fic, so I hope it was enjoyable. I have never been to Tucson and don't really know a lot about the eighties, although I tried to do my research, so if you have any suggestions about those aspects I'd be happy to hear them. English is not my native language so pls be kind :) Finally, reviews truly make me so happy so don't hesitate to leave me your thoughts on the story so far. 
> 
> PS: Who's excited for the sequel? What do you think will happen? Who do you think Cassandra is? My best guess was Dante's sister so incorporated that into this story but I don't really know.


End file.
